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Gun restrictions pass first test in Colorado House

By Lynn Bartels,Kurtis Lee and Tim HooverThe Denver Post

Posted:
02/15/2013 09:35:09 PM MST

DENVER, CO - FEBRUARY 15: Members of the Colorado House debate four gun-control bills in the House chamber at the State Capitol on February 15, 2013, in Denver, Colorado. The debate is expected to last most of the day. (Daniel Petty, The Denver Post)

After an epic debate, Colorado Democrats advanced stricter gun-control measures Friday, ensuring that the state will be held up as an example in a national fight over tougher firearm laws.

Republicans argued that the bills would drive jobs out of the state and violate the Second Amendment, but they couldn't get enough Democrats in the state House to flip to their side.

A year ago, Republicans held a 33-32 majority in the House, but after the November election Democrats are back in charge, 37-28, with a margin that allows them to lose a member or two or three and still prevail.

Democrats gave initial approval to all four bills Friday, but the official vote won't happen until Monday.

The next step would be the Senate, where Democrats hold a 20-15 majority, and then it's on to Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, who said Thursday he backs three of the bills and is still reviewing the fourth, which would prevent concealed-carry permit holders from packing heat in campus buildings.

"We proposed reasonable gun-safety and public-safety legislation, and we've had a vigorous debate over it," said House Speaker Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver. "I'm confident it will reduce the level of gun violence in communities across the state."

Republicans argued that the bills did nothing for gun safety.

Nearly eight hours into the debate, Vice President Joe Biden called four House Democrats to get their take on the debate and to note Colorado's importance in a national discussion on gun control.

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Republicans, who have insisted for a week that Democrats are jamming the gun bills through the House, jumped on the news of Biden's call, saying Washington Democrats are behind Hickenlooper's support and an apparent change of heart among some Democratic lawmakers Friday.

Ferrandino laughed at the suggestion. He pointed out that the gun bills had been scheduled to be introduced last week and debated in committee and on the floor this week before he got his call Friday afternoon from Biden.

"I was shocked that he called," Ferrandino said of Biden. "He said he thought the bills could help them on a national level."

Biden, who is in Colorado on a ski trip, echoed the same themes with at least three other Democratic lawmakers: Mike McLachlan of Durango, Tony Exum of Colorado Springs and Dominick Moreno of Commerce City.

"He said it would send a strong message to the rest of the country that a Western state had passed gun-control bills," Exum said.

The country is embroiled in a debate over gun control after mass murders inside a Colorado movie theater in July and a Connecticut elementary school in December.

McLachlan said the vice president told him he carried a gun bill in the U.S. Senate in 1980.

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"He said it was a tough battle, and he still had the scars on his back and to hang in there," McLachlan said.

The House began debating the first of four bills, a measure that prohibits high-capacity magazines, at 9:30 a.m. Republicans were hoping to flip the necessary five Democrats to kill the bill but found only three: Reps. Ed Vigil of Fort Garland, Leroy Garcia of Pueblo and Steve Lebsock of Thornton.

Some Republicans thought they might draw the support of McLachlan and Diane Mitsch Bush of Steamboat Springs but were out of luck.

Though it took lawmakers more than five fours to debate that bill, Republicans weren't looking at their watches — but at the 2014 calendar.

They predict Democrats in swing districts who vote for the gun bills are going to be in big trouble back home.

Rep. Max Tyler, D-Lakewood, countered that every issue is fodder in his Jefferson County swing district.

"I have to stand up and do what I think is right," he said. "I'm not going to worry about what they're going to slice and dice and run against me. I have to vote for what I think is correct, what I think my district supports and what my conscience supports."

All four bills passed out of committee this week on party-line votes, after hundreds of gun-rights advocates asked that the measures be killed and the victims of gun violence asked that they be approved.

Republicans had accused Democrats on Thursday of cutting off their debate during an Appropriations Committee hearing on the bills. If the GOP thought it was going to get headlines on that charge Friday, it was wrong.

Ferrandino let Republicans — and Democrats — talk.

And talk.

And talk.

"It's not good for Colorado, and I urge that we do what's right and kill this bill," Waller said, stating that if the ammunition-magazine bill passed, businesses would leave Colorado and cost some 700 jobs.

"Limiting the number of bullets will save lives," countered Rep. Lois Court, D-Denver. "It's intuitive ... more bullets, more weapons, more killing. Less bullets, less weapons, less killing."

Another bill would ban concealed-weapon permit holders from carrying on campuses.

"Students and guns are a bad mix," said Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder.

But Rep. Chris Holbert, R-Parker, shook his head at that argument.

"This is not K-12. There's no kid who has a concealed-carry permit. There are adults," he said.

The debate was mostly civil although certainly heated and passionate.

But rookie lawmakers were stunned at the vitriolic e-mail and phone messages they have received over gun bills.

Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, read a profanity-laced note he received calling him a fascist and saying you will "(bleeping) die."

"I started thinking to myself, 'Boy, do I want that guy to go through a universal background check?' " Salazar said, getting a big laugh.

House Bill 1228, by Rep. Lois Court, D-Denver: Requires gun customers to pay the costs of their criminal background checks by the Bureau of Investigation. Status: Initially approved, but pulled back to fix a technical problem.

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